New Zealand-born author Michael Baigent, 65, has died in England.He died of a brain haemorrhage, the Telegraph reports.In 2007, Britain's Court of Appeal rejected a suit from Baigent and Richard Leigh who claimed novelist Dan Brown stole their ideas for his blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code.Baigent and Leigh had argued that Brown stole significant elements from their book The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail.Baigent was born into a Roman Catholic family in Christchurch in 1948. He grew up in Nelson and Wakefield.His maternal... [Lire la suite]

An Auckland man who organised a child sex tour of Thailand for an undercover policeman has failed to have his conviction and jail term overturned bathroom storage.David Wales, 48, was last year jailed for three years for organising the tours after he offered one to a policeman who had been going by the name of Michael Gray.Wales went to the Court of Appeal, arguing that he had only organised the trip, not what might happen on it, and that the undercover officer had entrapped him.The court, in a decision released on Friday, rejected... [Lire la suite]